Thesaurus results for BILKED

bilked

verb

past tense of bilk

as in cheated

to rob by the use of trickery or threats an investigation revealed that the garage had been bilking motorists for repairs that had never been made

Synonyms & Similar Words

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Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Recent Examples of bilked In 2025, romance scammers bilked ordinary men and women out of over a billion dollars using a variety of crooked tactics. — K. Thor Jensen, PC Magazine, 28 Sep. 2026 Rimes is accused of of stealing $17,000 from a Daytona Beach resident and Heard allegedly bilked a victim out of $9,300. — Dan Raby, CBS News, 28 Sep. 2026 Jason Cloth, a film producer with dozens of credits including Joker, Longlegs and Babylon, is facing numerous federal fraud charges and decades in prison in connection with a Ponzi scheme that bilked investors of more than $100 million. — Erik Pedersen, Deadline, 29 July 2026 Federal prosecutors allege Eidleh was the mastermind who bilked taxpayers out of $250 million by exploiting federal child nutrition programs meant to feed vulnerable children. — Louis Casiano, FOXNews.com, 16 July 2026 The Justice Department said that the disgraced former executive bilked the museum out of the money by altering invoices and approving transactions for personal purchases. — News Desk, Artforum, 14 July 2026 Lawmakers have griped for decades that defense contractors have bilked the federal government on lucrative projects that run over budget and over schedule. — Garrett Downs, CNBC, 14 July 2026 Multiple scams over the course of three days bilked Washington state residents out of more than $670,000, according to a Facebook post from the local sheriff’s office. — Drew Pittock, USA Today, 5 July 2026 Twenty-one people are facing charges as part of a massive hospice fraud scheme that prosecutors say bilked California’s medical system out of $267 million. — Hannah Fry, Los Angeles Times, 9 Apr. 2026

Recent Examples of Synonyms for bilked

Verb

As Gabe yells that Morgan cheated and broke up the family, a grin starts to spread across Nick’s and Serena’s faces.

— Rafaela Bassili, Vulture, 16 Oct. 2026
The Dubas front office cheated for offence in a sense too, deciding to buck the trend by building from centre ice backwards and not drafting/developing top d-men.

— James Mirtle, New York Times, 15 Oct. 2026

Definition of cheated

Verb

During fall, a train window serves as the perfect perch for leaf-peeping in river valleys aglow in crimson and gold or passing through small towns that look like they’ve been plucked from a Hallmark movie.

— Lauren Dana Ellman, Midwest Living, 15 Oct. 2026
As the party winded down, guests plucked final bites off silver platters and marveled at how tall Skarsgård truly is in person—his nearly six-foot-five frame barely fit under the bar’s low ceilings.

— Kenneal Patterson, Vanity Fair, 14 Oct. 2026

Definition of plucked

Verb

Quickly, the house lights come up, and Lay and family are hustled backstage to get reacquainted.

— Joan Kron, Allure, 28 Sep. 2026
Her mother hustled her to hospital, only for the doctors to realize Accurso’s active imagination had left her in the same predicament as Madeline’s friends.

— CT Jones, Rolling Stone, 15 Sep. 2026

Definition of hustled

Verb

All of a sudden, Bass was a staggering champion lunging at a revived Raman, who swung and stung and ducked the way only a hungry up-and-comer can.

— Lorraine Ali, Los Angeles Times, 14 Oct. 2026
The loss to Ole Miss three weeks ago stung, but was not unexpected.

— Austin Perry OutKick, FOXNews.com, 11 Oct. 2026

Definition of stung

Verb

In Malabo, Bioko’s biggest city, a team of men and women equipped with insecticide sprayers squeezed between low-rise cement buildings on a recent morning, as heavy rain drummed on aluminum roofs.

— ABC News, ABC News, 18 Oct. 2026
Elevated borrowing rates and refinancing challenges (registration required) have squeezed an already difficult landscape for development financing.

— Jill Jones, Forbes.com, 16 Oct. 2026

Definition of squeezed

Verb

Fraud victims file civil lawsuit Eleven of the victims that were defrauded in the Ponzi scheme filed a civil lawsuit in August against an affiliate brokerage firm of MassMutual, a financial services company.

— Kendrick Calfee, Kansas City Star, 16 Oct. 2026
Jeffrey Royer was an FBI agent from 1996 to 2001 and defrauded investors by falsely representing how their funds would be used and fabricating documents about their investments' performance, according to the district attorney's office.

— Karma Sabbah, CBS News, 15 Oct. 2026

Definition of defrauded

Verb

To Knight, he has been screwed out of those opportunities thanks to The Bloodline – Reigns’ faction of family members who have had his back through thick and thin.

— Ryan Gaydos OutKick, FOXNews.com, 10 Oct. 2026
Unavoidably the text has been chopped and channeled, with some swapping of parts, bits of narration screwed into dialogue and events described in a paragraph blown out into scenes.

— Robert Lloyd, Los Angeles Times, 1 Oct. 2026

Definition of screwed

Verb

And there’s little reasonable about looking the other way when residents say they’re being swindled or when the state’s constitution is being violated.

— Scott Maxwell, The Orlando Sentinel, 13 Oct. 2026
At one point, Fred was swindled out of upward of $15,000 when someone pretended to be the owner of a house for sale that Fred wanted to buy.

— Megan Rose, ProPublica, 9 Sep. 2026

Definition of swindled

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“Bilked.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/bilked. Accessed 20 Oct. 2026.

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Synonyms of bilked

verb

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